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Tuesday, July 26, 2016

A Liberating Delusion!

It is not that
Islam radicalizes but that radicalization has been Islamized, as Olivier Roy
argues. While a reformation is needed, it is of modernity, not Islam, in light
of a globalized, post-colonial world. Islam has enormous potential to be a
force for good, peace, and reconciliation. But, in order for this good altruism
to be achieved, a critical re-evaluation of globalization, colonialism, and
modernity is needed. An appeal to Islam’s inherent compassion is not enough,
unless these ideologies are also unpacked.

If you believe that colonialism,
nationalism, modernity and globalization are to blame for the ills of
contemporary Muslim communities, then, basically, you are portraying Muslims as
ultimate victims, and shifting the onus of leading change to others – the
advocates of these other isms, and you are absolving yourselves of the
responsibility for critically reviewing your heritage and traditions. So, in
order for Muslims to be better off in this world other people have to change
their ideas, ideologies and attitudes.

I can see how that can feel
very liberating.

Personally, however, I prefer, to
examine things from a slightly different perspective. To me, the real problem
is found more in our continuing inability to come up with successful adaptation
strategies to help us deal with the challenges posed by the impact of
colonialism, nationalism, modernity and globalization than in the mere reality
of these phenomena. In the social sense, these phenomena have been part of our
existence since time immemorial. They are no less objective than sunrise and
sunset. You cannot blame sunrise and sunset. Their dynamics may shift and
change, but, one way or another, they will remain parts of our ongoing
dynamics.

Migration is, in some ways, a
form of modern-day colonialism, one that seems to reverse the traditional power
dynamics involved, allowing for the disinherited and dispossessed to pose
problems for richer societies, rather than the other way around. Nationalism is
the new tribalism. Globalization is another manifestation of how seemingly
disconnected societies can become dependent on each other and influenced by
each other’s seemingly independent social and political dynamics. Even
modernity is an old phenomenon in the sense that it essentially represents a
change in values, outlooks and behaviors resulting from the particular
historical experiences of particular peoples and whose impact is coterminous
with the reach of these peoples, and the inability of ideas to recognize
geographical borders.

Moreover, I find the call for a
reformation within modernity to be rather baffling. While some seem to embrace
modernity uncritically and ideologically, a critical evaluation and
reassessment of ideas and institutions is one of the hallmarks of the modern
intellectual debate, and the influence of this debate on the public sphere is
enormous, albeit not necessarily always positive. In other words, reformation
is an ongoing phenomenon in modern democratic societies.

Back to the beginning, it’s the
Muslims’ understanding of their faith that needs to be modernized, and that
does indeed require rejecting elements of their traditional belief system, even
those enshrined in the holy books. This is what followers of other traditional
faith systems had to do. Those who insist that Islam should be an exception in
this regard are, in effect endorsing gender inequality, second-class status to
members of other faiths, death penalty for those considered heretics and
apostates and slavery, among other horrible practices that are definitely
anti-modern, and are in no way conducive to helping Muslim societies achieve
the kind of parity they want with Western societies. If we want to call out
Western hypocrisy we have to stop being so hypocritical ourselves.

Go ahead, patronize me!

About Ammar

Ammar Abdulhamid is a Syrian-American author and pro-democracy activist based in Silver Spring, Maryland. He is the founder of the Tharwa Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to democracy promotion. His personal website and entries from his older blogs can be accessed here.

The Delirica

The Delirica is a companion blog to the Daily Digest of Global Delirium meant to highlight certain DDGD items by publishing them as separate posts. Also, the Delirica republishes articles by Ammar that appeared on other sites since 2016. Older articles can be found on Ammar's internet archive: Ammar.World